Favourite Beauty Products of 2012

With the avalanche of tempting new products each season, it's easy to get caught up in the latest limited edition offerings. While I try to rotate the brands in my stash, the carousel keeps getting ever larger and I do feel guilty that some excellent products get neglected while I keep testing out new products for reviews here. Here's a list of 12 products that I found myself reaching for regularly in 2012, often snapping up multiple shades. These are all items that I will happily re-purchase.

1. Favourite Lip Balm: Fresh Sugar Tinted Lip Treatments are an instant balm for my lips. This holiday gift set of minis was the perfect addition to my collection.

2. Favourite Lip Gloss: YSL Glossy Stains offer truly long-lasting shine without drying out the lips. The shade range is also impressive, with another 4 new shades set to debut in the spring collection.

3. Favourite Lip Stick: Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipsticks by Kate Moss offer excellent color payoff, a diverse range of highly wearable shades and are super easy on the wallet.


4.-6. Favourite Eyeliner: Integrate Kira Wink Gel Liner, Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pens and Three Flash Performance Eyeliner Pencils are my daily staples. These are so reliably easy to use and gentle on the eyelids that I don't even reach for my Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners anymore.

7. Favourite Cream Blush: Becca Beach Tints are superbly easy to use, long-lasting and wake up the complexion instantly.

8. Favourite Powder Blush: Paul & Joe Color Powder CS #79 Les Tourtereaux, #80 True Love and #81 Inseparables from the Lovebirds collection for autumn 2012 have just the right amount of color payoff and are pretty much fool-proof.

9. Favourite Foundation #1: Coffret D'Or Silky Fit Liquid Foundation is easy to blend, provides good coverage and a lovely natural finish.

10. Favourite Foundation #2 Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation gives a more glowy finish than the Coffret D'Or foundation.

11. Favourite Eyeshadow Palette: Three 4D Eye Palette 04 Art of Parties may be less versatile compared to Urban Decay's Vice and 15th Anniversary palettes but the magical purple and creamy black shades form a stellar combination.


12. Favourite Fragrance: Jo Loves Pomelo and A Shot of Thai Lime Over Mango are delightfully zesty confections that never fail to lift up my mood. After using up these, I'll definitely invest in the 100ml bottles. Jo Loves now ships internationally.


What were your favourite products of the past year? Do share in the comments!

Weekly Photo Challenge Summer Must-Haves

This week's photo challenge theme by Yumeko is summer must-haves, so here goes!

1. Base Makeup – [sunscreen, powder, foundation, BB cream, whatever you use in the heat/humidity of summer]

My current range of primers include Paul & Joe Protective Foundation Primer UV SPF40 PA++, Dior Radiant Base SPF20 PA+, Anna Sui Protective Foundation Primer C SPF38 PA++, Za True White Instant Brightener SPF30 PA++ and RMK Smoothing Polished Base SPF13 PA+. I've been using the Paul & Joe primer virtually daily, usually under powder foundation, and love it for the high SPF and non-greasy texture. After finishing this, I'll probably switch to either the Dior or Anna Sui primer next. The latter is a lavender tinted primer with a brightening effect. The Za version is the most watery of the lot, feels very lightweight and silicone-y on skin but it does not offer good oil control. The RMK primer is the best in terms of concealing pores.

2. Point Makeup [blush,eyeshadow,whatever you use in the heat/humidity of summer]

When it's so hot, I reach for makeup that is super easy and quick to apply, without the need for complicated layering or blending. Dior's Eye Glosses from their recent summer collection are great for adding a tint of color with a slightly shimmery finish. Once these set, they do not crease and I can layer powder eyeshadow or eyeliner on top if I wish. Becca Beach Tints are also very lightweight and easy to blend though I would not use them with powder foundation.

I prefer lipglosses over lipsticks these days, as well as lip tints like Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains. Coral, orange and pink hues are my staples for the summer.

3. Sunglasses/Hat/Anything you are wearing to block out the sun’s harmful rays

For walks in the park and hiking, I've been relying on this Union Jack print hat from Next that I picked up in London a couple of months ago. And I'm never without a lip balm with SPF like Ettusais Lip Essence SPF18 PA++ and Fresh Sugar Tinted Lip Treatment SPF15.

4. Deodorant/Body Spray/Perfume [whatever you are using to make yourself smell good]

For the sweltering days, I prefer light zesty fragrances. Jo Loves fits the bill perfectly with Pomelo, A Shot of Thai Lime Over Mango, and Mango Nectar.

5. Other must-haves for Summer

These would be Gatsy Oil Clear Sheets (the non-powdered type) which soak up every last drop of oil without disturbing one's makeup, L'Occitane Angelica Mist for a refreshing pick-me-up during the day, and an "uchiwa". These fans are a popular form of advertising in Japan and often given out free on the streets. I've got dozens of these!

BeautyOshaberi has also done this challenge, so do check out her picks. If you would like to join in the fun, just leave a comment on Yumeko's post and here with a link to your blog post, and I'll be sure to check it out!

Jo Loves Mango Nectar and A Shot of Thai Lime Over Mango

Jo Loves Mango is a new collection of three fragrances inspired by an evening at the Four Seasons bar in New York watching mixologists work their magic. After the enchantment of Pomelo, it was interesting to see Jo Malone's take on another tropical fruit. Malone took two years to perfect the Mango Nectar note at the heart of the three fragrances.

A Shot of Thai Lime Over Mango is delightfully zesty and uplifting, the perfect antidote to a sweltering muggy summer day. The Kaffir lime note adds a youthful vibrancy to the sweet, warm mango heart. I fell in love with this instantly, as did my husband. The other notes include black pepper, freesia, mint leaves, white thyme and vetiver.

Mango Nectar is a sweeter concoction with subtle floral hints. The mango note, livened with pink grapefruit, is voluptuously sweet and juicy, without being too cloying or generic. The other notes include mango leaf, bitter orange, apricot blossom, jasmine and musk.

Both fragrances last surprisingly well on me, stretching well over six hours. Most other perfumes completely vanish on my skin after two to three hours. I skipped the third fragrance, A Shot of Oud over Mango (with notes of mango, black pepper, freesia and oud wood) as I'm not a fan of woody scents. These are available in 100ml (£95) and 30ml (£45) sizes.

The classy red boxes are beautifully made and would make excellent presents for a loved one. It's a pity that Jo Loves (which has no relation to the Estee Lauder-owned Jo Malone fragrance brand) currently ships only within the UK and EU but hopefully they will expand their distribution soon.

Jo Loves Pomelo

One of the most exciting beauty news of 2011 was the return of Jo Malone with her new Jo Loves fragrance brand. Malone left her namesake brand (now owned by Estee Lauder) in 2006 and it's been a long wait since then for fans of her creations. The first collection of four fragrances debuted at Selfridges in London in November with a temporary pop-up store. Currently, they are available exclusively online at JoLoves.com which ships only to the UK and selected European countries.

My recent order of Pomelo and Orange Tulle arrived beautifully packaged in bold red boxes.


Malone's name always evokes a sense of confident elegance and innate class, as reflected in the simple, unfussy bottles. There is no need for extraneous adornments of kawaii daisies and voluptuous flowers to draw attention as the fragrances speak with crystal clear clarity for themselves.

Malone describes Pomelo as "clean and crisp; it’s my best friend made up of memories and moments. It’s that feeling of fresh linen sheets or a glass of bubbling fizzy water with a slice of lime and lots of crushed ice...Like me, Pomelo has a masculine side to it, it’s confident and sharp.”

On my skin, Pomelo is wonderfully invigorating and fresh but with a relaxed, casual warmth. Malone has captured the distinctive note of pomelo perfectly. It is a delicious grapefruity aroma that is not too sharply tart and not syrupy sweet either. I could not stop taking long deep sniffs of Pomelo, which I found simply intoxicating (it also made me crave a cool Thai pomelo salad with nuts). It lasts surprisingly well on my skin. Most fragrances disappear on me after three hours but with Pomelo, I could still detect light whiffs of it after five hours.


The website offers two samples with each order. The four fragrances are available in 30ml (£45) and 100ml (£95) sizes. Pomelo is such a unique and lovely fragrance that I can definitely see myself investing in the 100ml size after using up my current bottle. Jo Malone will follow up this confident debut with a trio of mango-based fragrances in July.


Below is a video clip on the pop-up store in Selfridges. Do also check out the interviews with Jo Malone on the Telegraph and Yummy Mummy Beauty.